Archive for April 7th, 2012

In this day and age when the traditional broadcast networks have lost their dominance, and we can pretty watch whatever we want when we want… I wanted to give kudos to ABC for continuing the tradition of showing the classic epic film The Ten Commandments in primetime during the Easter/Passover season.

Programming like this these days is rare and it is a throwback to a time when choices on television were fewer and broadcasts like this were events. ABC has shown this film during the Easter/Passover season for decades now, most recently every year on Holy Saturday.

About The Ten Commandments: “Starring Charlton Heston as Moses, this dramatic Biblical epic is presented with an all-star cast, including Yul Brynner as Pharaoh, Anne Baxter as Queen Nefretiri, Edward G. Robinson as the overseer of the slaves and Yvonne DeCarlo as Moses’ wife. The film traces the story of Moses, from the time his mother set him afloat on the Nile, through his years as a young commander in Pharaoh’s army to his betrayal and exile and, finally, his deliverance of the Israelites and the receiving of God’s Commandments.”

I moved into this house in northern New Hampshire last year on Good Friday. By the next day (following a six inch snow fall and noticing way more work to do on the house than I bargained for) I was questioning if I had made the right decision to take over the house.

I had no cable or internet connection yet and the mountains and distance from broadcast signals made it a challenge to get any TV or radio reception. But I knew the strongest signal in the area was an ABC station out of Poland Springs, Maine. I rooted around and managed to create a make-shift antenna that after several minutes of moving things around – adding coat hangers and aluminum foil balls here and there – was able to get a signal… just in time to watch The Ten Commandments while I colored eggs. The reception was fuzzy, but it good enough for me.

I didn’t have much going on in the house yet. It was still cold and I was all alone far away from friends and family. But sitting there watching the film and marking the holiday, I knew everything was going to be alright.